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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Some above the law

On the late evening of 12 September 2008 in Penang, Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

On that same day RPK and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Seputeh, sweetie sassy Teresa Kok, were also arrested under the same draconian Act.Tan Hoon Cheng was released the following day but both RPK and sweetie continued to enjoy the kerajaan's nasi kari kosong a bit longer.

Just what threats to Malaysian national security required the UMNO-led government to use the Internal Security Act to hold them under police detention - bearing in mind the ISA was meant to detain communist insurgents.

Were those three communist terrorists?Tan was detained for reporting that Ahmad Ismail, the UMNO Division Chef for Bukit Bendera, made a racist remark about the Chinese during a ceramah in the Permatang Pauh by-election.

orang cina pendatang

Ahmad Ismail was not detained (of course, he's UMNO) but Tan the reporter was.Syed Hamid, the Home Minister, explained that Tan was detained, apparently for 'her own good'.So the UMNO Home Minister did discover a new use for the ISA, to protect innocent people by detaining them, instead of protecting innocent people by detaining terrorists or (okay, misuse ISA lah) individuals who incited others to commit acts of public disorder.

No wonder we have been known for our Boleh-ness.Incidentally I wonder what Syed Hamid meant by 'for her own good'?As a kid when my dad gave me a thrashing, my mum explained it was 'for my own good'. So was the detention of Tan equivalent to the thrashing of kaytee for our respective good, or did that 'for her good' mean someone or some people were out to get her for reporting on an UMNO big shot?If the latter case, who then should have been ISA-ed, not that I'm advocating use of the ISA, but merely showing Syed Hamid's and his police's stupidity and gross misuse of the ISA.

RPK was detained for allegedly inciting Muslims in an article that allegedly ridiculed them, Islam and Prophet Mohammad. Apparently RPK's article which did so was titled 'Not all Arabs are descendants of the Prophet' from which I can guess what would have been written, even without reading same.Poor sassy sweetie Teresa was detained under an allegation which by now everyone knows was sheer 100% grade bullshit, namely, that sweetie was involved in a petition to lower the volume of Masjid Kinrara’s speakers when announcing the azan.Unfortunately for Botak, Abdul Rahman Nasir, head of the mosque committee, confirmed that sassy sweetie was never involved in such a petition. Note his words 'never involved', not just 'not involved'.Those were the three threats to national security which necessitated the police to detain, in the eyes of UMNO, 3 dangerous ferocious frightening terrorist-like insurgents. Bull dust galore!

Fast forward to 2013 - lovely and generous peh pow giver, Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa screamed for bibles containing the word Allah to be seized and burned by Muslims. He made the seditious incitement at a Perkasa convention held at UiTM.That was almost a week ago.Numerous organizations and individuals have since called the police and Home Ministry to act on such a seditious incitement.Nothing happened.Only today we are told by Malaysiakini that Ibrahim Ali [has been] called up by cops in Penang, mind you, just to record his statement.What? No ISA-ing?I recall his inciting seditious remarks would be similar to the inciting seditious sms call made by the Mufti of Perak in 2006.That Mufti was also not ISA-ed but in fact subsequently awarded a Tan Sri title. So dear Ibrahim Ali, there's still hope yet for you to receive a similar honour for your seditious inciting call to Muslims to seize and burn bibles with the Allah word.What about the authority?MKINI reported: ... Karpal Singh gave the attorney-general two weeks to act against Ibrahim.However, Attorney-General Gani Patail had said police must investigate actual incidences of Bible-burning in order for any action to be taken.

Of course, there must be investigation prior to any police action because Ibrahim Ali is Head of an UMNO associate, Perkasa, unlike Tan Hoon Cheng who was a mere reporter from Sin Chew Daily, while RPK was then only an independent blogger/individual and Teresa Kok only a mere Member of Parliament (MP) but one from the DAP.Dato' Mohd Ariff Sabri (Sakmongkol AK47) has been right that Najib is a weak leader, seeing he dares not take any action against Ibrahim Ali.

I wonder whether Dato' Ariff had implied it's not that Najib doesn't want to haul Ibrahim Ali in for his inflammatory incitement, but it's that Najib takut lah (is scared) to do so.Why?I give you three guesses.Anwar Ibrahim? Wakakaka, but no no no, have a second guess.Monsterball? No no no, besides we must be respectful to the departed. Okay, one last guess.??????? wakakaka!

21 comments:

How dare Najib arrrest Ibrahim as the event at UiTM was also graced by the great Dr Mahathir?

Also the following reported happened :1) The suggestion to arrest the reporter came from Ahmad Ismail himself.

2) When Hamid was asked why Ahmad was not punished, he replied that UMNO's suspension is punishment enough. (Can't differentiate between punitive action from common law and that of internal party rules!).

3) This episode shows the police acts under political influence, in contrast to ministers saying otherwise.

The Ketuanan types hold in their hands all the levers of power and naturally they will use this advantage to protect members of their own tribe on one hand and on the other to prosecute and persecute outsiders they consider as irritants.

just a minor clarification - Internal politics has divided Palestine into two camps and virtually two governments, namely the legal (elected) HAMAS government under its PM, Ismail Haniyeh, located in Gaza and the US backed Fatah organization in effective administrative control of the West Bank. Obviously they hate each other, and thus it's not surprising that PLO Chairman Abbas (from the Fatah organization) would criticize Najib for going to his rival's sector, giving further legitimacy to Haniyeh's Hamas.

Its more complicated than your Hamas (legal) government vs. Fatah (US client) characterisation.

Gaza's pressure cooker physical environment has bred the kind of radicalism that popularises Hamas. I won't say life is good on the West Bank, but it is less unpleasant than Gaza, and the mainstream PLO has more grass roots credibility there from years of operating compared to Hamas.

two factors made Hamas more popular than Fatah - (a) Hamas does not suffer from the notoriety of being a corrupt organisation that Fatah was, and in our case, as UMNO does, and (b) Hamas instituted a welfare program to look after the people especially Gazaans. These two factors helped a more popular Hamas win the election.

Ironically for Israel, it was the financial backer in the formation of Hamas, in its sinister intention to undermine Fatah (then under Arafat), and now it deservedly reaps the bitter fruits of its evil design - padan muka.

Regardless of Palestinian internal politics, it is obvious that PM Najib has been ill-advised by Wisma Putra officials. It was the duty of top officials to provide the guidance to the PM to steer clear of or at least mitigate the impact of Palestinian internal politics.Frankly, I'm not surprised at all.Most countries recruit their best and brightest to fill the foreign service. Young people with the brains, hard and soft skills to put their country's case forward, and also assist their country navigate the winding course of international diplomacy.That's not been the case with Malaysia for decades now.The diplomatic service is filled with officers of the "right" race, mediocre grasp and knowledge of international affairs, poor English skills, let alone any other foreign language skills.

Consider Malaysia is a nation with millions of fluent Mandarin speakers, I'm sure many with the qualifications and aptitude to be diplomats. The Malaysian Embassy in Beijing has no senior diplomats who can communicate with the people in their host country in Chinese. I don't think I need to explain why.

Gaza is the aggrieved flavour of angry Muslims including those in the Malaysian Heartland, and the Palestinian side which earns most of Malaysian Muslims' sympathy, hence it's politically more profitable for Najib to go there than the West Bank (quite frankly, minimal profit for Najib here), regardless of Palestine internal politics, and I dare guess he doesn't give a shit as he is only or at least more interested in Heartland votes

From your commentary here it would appear that the mamak-tambys, esp those in Penang, are really vile trouble-makers aren't they judging from the way they constantly try to derail LGE's administration through all manner of malicious actions?

I just read RPK's lament that most comments at his blog attack Mahathir for his Indian ancestry wakakaka. Perhaps we better not fall into that rut. Let's just call the trouble makers ardent pro UMNO supporters wakakaka.

If you read The Malay Dilemma, and various other subsequent outbursts by Mahathir, he is virtually inviting critics to remind him of his strong Indian ancestry.

Mahathir repeatedly makes the case of those who have a "natural right" to the full benefits of Malaysian citizenship and more - those from the Definitive people of this region or those who accept assimilating into the culture - Melayu vs. those from an "alien" culture and refuse to be assimilated and are unqualified to demand equal status i.e. the Chinese and the Indians.

The whole basis of Ketuanan Melayu revolves around this differentiation. And also serves as Mahathir's private rationale for Project IC.

So it is perfectly right, without being racist, to remind Mahathir he is after all practically a Tamby.

But then Mahathir can say he has "lost" his original Tamby characteristics and "acquired the privileged position", to use the words from his book.

There is actually a Usman Awang poem and recited by Najib during an UMNO assembly and it lists all those races that are qualified to be Melayu, and includes "Mamak" and "India Muslim" . Off course no Cina or India. You can find the poem here :http://www.pmo.gov.my/?menu=speech&page=1908&news_id=355&speech_cat=2

He has proven through policies and actions that he is a most thoughtful, intelligent, inclusive and moderate PM, fair to all races. He has his blind spots and weaknesses, but the alternatives for PM if he fails are far scarier - both within BN and in the Opposition.

Obviously in a normal criminal case the police must generally possess enough grounds to take action, but in a case like Ibrahim Ali openly inciting the Muslims to seize and burn bibles containing the Allah word, it's patently clear that was already sufficient grounds for the police to nip the possible trouble in the bud, by hauling him in.

Just imagine, if Muslims had listened to and actioned Ibrahim Ali's incitements, how they would go about checking bibles for possible inclusion of the Allah word? That could have brought about horrendous public disorder. And our remarkable police did nothing for almost a week, as if waiting for political instructions - maybe they were (that is, waiting for political instructions).

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics